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Xiaomi, the Chinese company behind the Mi Pad, announces iOS-like Android skin

miui6

Not content with a blatant copy of the iPad mini and a smartphone called the Mi Phone, Xiaomi’s latest Android overlay – MIUI 6 – bears more than a passing resemblance to iOS 7. The flat icons, the icon screens scrolling above the fixed app tray at the bottom, the calendar, calculator, compass … 

Xiaomi global VP and former Google exec Hugo Barra has said previously that suggestions that the company copies Apple’s designs are “sweeping sensationalist statements” and that similarities are coincidental.

“If you have two similarly skilled designers, it makes sense that they would reach the same conclusion,” he argues. “It doesn’t matter if somebody else has reached the same conclusion.”

Seems Xiaomi’s software designers, like their tablet designers, reached very similar conclusions here.

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Design protection is very limited in China, making it tough for Apple to take legal action, and it’s also possible that Apple doesn’t want to rock the boat in a sensitive market. How long Apple’s tolerance will last, however, as Xiaomi expands internationally is something that will be interesting to see.

Via TechCrunch

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Comments

  1. lexxkoto - 10 years ago

    This looks nothing like iOS 7. Unless Apple “own” bright colours and gradients now.

  2. Tim Jr. - 10 years ago

    As long as the product stays on China shores, likely Apple won’t have any recourse..

  3. heuveltjes (@heuveltjes) - 10 years ago

    IOS7 was inspired by Android’s flat design. So who is copying who?

    • Ekim Güney Köse - 10 years ago

      of course android copied apple !!!

      • Nycko Heimberg - 10 years ago

        NO….The Xiaomi MI 2 with colors on Back Cover ? The 5c is not the SAME ?
        Xiaomi MI 2 end 2012…iPhone 5c end 2013……

    • Xavier Poirot (@dalaen) - 10 years ago

      Wait, what?

    • Harvey Lubin - 10 years ago

      Yeah. Android had the first multi-touch smartphones that were introduced in January 2007. Then Apple came along and totally copied the Android operating system and the multi-touch phone hardware architecture when it introduced the first iPhone 3 years later in 2010…

      … Yeah, that’s the ticket!

      That is my story and I’m sticking to it.

      (͡° ͜ʖ°)

      • Harvey Lubin - 10 years ago

        In case you misconstrue my comment, it was total sarcasm. ;-))

      • heuveltjes (@heuveltjes) - 10 years ago

        I thought the article was about UI not about inventing the multi-touch smartphone…

    • Android is a mostly Free Operating system powered on the foundation of GNU/Linux.
      Free as in Freedom.

      iOS is proprietary, Windows is proprietary, however android is no.

      Android is what is known as Free Software.
      Some use the term as open source however they are two different camps, Android is Free Software.

      Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

      The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

      The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

      The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

      The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

  4. noelboss - 10 years ago

    Kind of even like it more than the current looks of iOS – at least the icons!

  5. airmanchairman - 10 years ago

    Every smartphone’s UI is eventually going to end up looking like iOS7, so Apple had better move on to something else already… The only way to stay exclusive is to keep reinventing the iPhone’s look and feel.

    • Tony Tay (@alexades2) - 10 years ago

      Why should Apple move on to something else, when THAT will be copied too? Why should they not wait for others to come up with something and then copy that instead? Until we understand that it takes time and money to move on to something else, and unless they recoup the money spent, the company will go bankrupt, we shall continue to make the same mistake in urging Apple to move on to something else. Ultimately, it will dawn on us that it is the customer who loses in the end as unrestricted “copying” ALWAYS lead to the death of innovation.

  6. Ario (@ArioYazdan) - 10 years ago

    Looks better than iOS if you ask me. Less cartoonish-looking.

  7. scumbolt2014 - 10 years ago

    Should ScamScum sue these guys for muscling in on their copying biz.

  8. tg337 - 10 years ago

    Those who say they don’t look the same clearly never created anything. Only drooling morons who are happy to get a cheaper product with similar look and feel would defend these copy/paste losers.
    It’s not about gradients, blurred images and flat icons individually. It’s about all those things put together to create a very similar experience aka ripoff.
    Praise a company for making something new, fresh, inspiring and useful, not similar cheaper products.

  9. Timothy Williamson - 10 years ago

    Those Calendar and Calculator apps are almost exact copies of iOS7. These Chinese and Korean companies are completely shameless with their ripoff products. Too bad they use a substandard underlying OS.

    • Nycko Heimberg - 10 years ago

      iPhone 5C copy of Mi 2……

      • Timothy Williamson - 10 years ago

        Good point, since Apple had never made a plastic iPhone or multicolored devices until after the Mi2. ;-)

      • bb1111116 - 10 years ago

        Apple was not copying Xiaomi with the iPhone 5C.
        The general shape of the Xiaomi Mi2 (released in 2012) imitated prior iPhones.
        As far as the Mi2 body being made of plastic, almost all Android phones have plastic bodies.
        And the iPhone 3G first released in 2008 had a plastic back.
        The IPhone 5C just continued design ideas which Apple had done before.

  10. alexmoeller - 10 years ago

    It seems that both the designer from Apple and the chinese company visited the same school ;-)

  11. moofer1972 - 10 years ago

    Tune in next month to find out what coincidental design conclusions these guys come up with 3 months from now…

  12. This looks better than iOS!!

  13. John D'cunha - 9 years ago

    there is no diffrnce in both of them bcuz the MIUIi is good bt apple can also improve.. there’s alwys room fr improvement

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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